The BMJ gloried in new laurels last week when its article on the imaging of male and female genitals during coitus, published in last year's Christmas issue, won the prize for medicine at the annual Ig Nobel prizegiving at Harvard University (BMJ 1999;319:1596-600).

The prizes, which have been given out every year since 1991, are for achievements that “cannot or should not be reproduced.” They are awarded by the science humour …